1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer program product for decorating visible attributes of a rendered avatar. More specifically, the present invention relates to determining whether an avatar within a scene presented is associated with a profile of the user sufficiently to modify the rendered avatar.
2. Description of the Related Art
Computer servers reachable over the internet provide powerful tools for people of diverse backgrounds to meet in a virtual manner without the attendant costs associated with traveling. Consequently, people worldwide may meet at an environment orchestrated by a server. Each person or user may use a client computer to login to a session with the server. Depending on the sophistication of the server, each person may be provided a virtualized character or avatar to facilitate communications with other users.
The more sophisticated among these servers provide environments that more or less mimic the physics of the real world. These environments are called virtual universes. A virtual universe is a simulation of a real world environment to account for physical phenomena. Such physical phenomena can include light propagation as well as rules governing the collision of objects. Nevertheless, a virtual universe may suspend some of the usual rules of physics, for example, providing flight capability to objects that lack proper airfoils or other flight controls
An avatar is an object that has at least one surface defined for display within a virtual universe. The avatar may be moved about at the control of a user, and may be associated with interests of a user, as well as biographical and biological features of a user. Nevertheless, the avatar may be fanciful and whimsical in nature, for example, the avatar may be defined to depict facial hair not present in the actual user. The avatar is viewable when rendered to a client having the required display and supporting hardware.
A virtual location or, simply, location is a position within a virtual universe. The location can include orientation information. A user who logs into a virtual universe is assigned a location. The location information can be provided to the user by the server transmitting rendering instructions to a client concerning how to represent a scene or view on a display of a client computer. A view is a range of three dimensional space in a virtual world that is amenable to being presented, at least in part, to a display in accordance with a user's avatar location and may be based on the attitude, pose or posture of the avatar. Views and avatar locations may be based on location data that is stored as Cartesian or polar coordinates. Each component part of an avatar, including items worn or manipulated by the avatar can have their respective locations as well as orientations stored and calculated within the server.
An avatar is important in two respects. The location of a user's avatar may determine whether and to what extent the server renders the user's avatar to the client computers operated by other users. In addition, the avatar's location, among other things, may determine the extent to which the server renders or displays the other avatars to the user's client computer. If an avatar's location is remote from other avatars, or otherwise obscured by objects, the avatar may not be rendered to a view of any client computer of any user.
A rendered avatar is an avatar that at least in part, is made visible on a computer display of a user. The rendered avatar may include the instructions for rendering the avatar as transmitted from a virtual universe host.
Within a virtual universe, it may be common for avatars to congregate and thus interact even if each user, associated with each avatar, has never met before, in the real world or otherwise. Like real-world environments, users in a virtual universe may have trouble finding a common topic of interest to discuss.